U.S. Ambassador Responds to Karzai’s Criticisms

HERAT, Afghanistan — The departing American ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl W. Eikenberry, lashed out at President Hamid Karzai on Sunday in a carefully calculated and candid rebuke of the Afghan leader’s increasingly inflammatory criticism of the coalition forces.

“When Americans, who are serving in your country at great cost — in terms of life and treasure — hear themselves compared with occupiers, told that they are only here to advance their own interest and likened to the brutal enemies of the Afghan people,” the ambassador said, “my people, in turn, are filled with confusion and grow weary of our effort here.”

Mr. Karzai also said Saturday that the United States had been negotiating with the Taliban. The American defense secretary, Robert M. Gates, acknowledged those talks publicly for the first time on Sunday, saying that the discussions were preliminary.

Mr. Eikenberry’s comments, in a postscript to a speech in front of about 200 students and faculty members at Herat University, departed sharply from the normally tolerant public stance that Western diplomats had taken with Mr. Karzai. The ambassador never mentioned the Afghan president by name, but his comments were clearly intended as a warning that Mr. Karzai was testing American patience at a critical time, with President Obama weighing troop reductions and support for the war fast eroding in Congress and among the American public.

The ambassador has made similar comments in the past, but he went substantially further on Sunday, reflecting growing worries among Western diplomats over Mr. Karzai’s repeated denunciations of the allied coalition. Mr. Karzai has been particularly critical of civilian casualties and the night raids and airstrikes that often lead to them, but he also frequently blames foreigners, and the way they deliver aid to Afghanistan, for feeding the widespread corruption that has stymied economic development.

“When we hear ourselves being called occupiers and worse,” Mr. Eikenberry said, “and our generous aid programs dismissed as totally ineffective and the source of all corruption, our pride is offended and we begin to lose our inspiration to carry on.”

President Karzai did not publicly respond to Mr. Eikenberry’s comments on Sunday. His spokesman did not return phone calls or reply to an e-mail.

Western diplomats have rarely countered Mr. Karzai’s criticisms, in the belief that he was mainly playing to a domestic audience. In private conversations with Western officials, diplomats say, he has expressed his concerns in softer, more tactful terms.

“If they continue their attacks on our houses, then their presence will change from a force that is fighting against terrorism to a force that is fighting against the people of Afghanistan,” he said. “And, in that case, history shows what Afghans do with trespassers and with occupiers.”

In his speech on Saturday, broadcast live on state-run television, Mr. Karzai’s criticisms were broader: he said that the coalition forces’ motives were suspect and that their weapons were polluting Afghanistan.

Mr. Eikenberry acknowledged that American and NATO forces had made mistakes.

“Over the course of time here, our learning curve has been steep,” he said. “That is because Afghanistan’s political, social and economic situation is complex. We do not speak your language and are far from home. But in spite of our mistakes, we are good people whose aim is to help improve our mutual security.”

“Mothers and fathers of fallen soldiers, spouses of soldiers who have lost arms and legs, children of those who lost their lives in your country, they ask themselves about the meaning of their loved one’s sacrifice,” he said. “When I hear some of your leaders call us occupiers, I cannot look these mourning parents, mourning spouses and mourning children in the eye and give them a comforting reply.”

As Mr. Eikenberry looked back on America’s experience in Afghanistan, Mr. Gates addressed the United States’ future there.

Pressing his case against withdrawing a significant number of American troops from the region this year, the defense secretary cautioned that he did not believe that negotiations with the Taliban would produce results unless the insurgents continued to feel military pressure.

Speaking on the CNN program “State of the Union,” he said the talks had only begun a few weeks ago and that officials were still uncertain that the Taliban participants were genuine representatives of the group’s leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar. Several other countries were participating in the effort, he said, though he did not specify which ones.

“We have said all along that a political outcome is the way most of the wars end,” he said. “The question is when and if they are ready to talk seriously.”

Referring to his concerns about withdrawing too many American troops this summer, he added, “I think the Taliban have to feel themselves under military pressure and begin to believe they can’t win before they are willing to have a serious conversation.”

Ray Rivera reported from Herat, and Ginger Thompson from Washington.

A version of this article appears in print on June 20, 2011, on Page A14 of the New York edition with the headline: Karzai Is Testing U.S. Patience, Envoy Says. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe